Housing

In charge of planning, housebuilding, and the local councils that handle most of it. The 300,000 homes a year target has been agreed by every government since the war and met by none.

England's large social landlords expect to spend £59 billion repairing and maintaining existing homes over the next five years while increasing development. The Regulator of Social Housing's press release describes £54.7 billion as "new borrowing". Its own report says a substantial part of that sum replaces existing loans as they mature.

Andy Burnham announced Your First Home on 26 September: an equity loan scheme for people buying their first home requiring a 2.5 per cent deposit, with government providing up to 20 per cent of the purchase price. The household income cap and local property price limits intended to target it better than Help to Buy will not be published until the Budget. The latest evaluation of Help to Buy found that 46 per cent of customers said they could not have bought without it; earlier research examined by the NAO put that figure at 37 per cent.

Andy Burnham announced £210 million for derelict buildings, threatened community assets and empty high street premises. MHCLG's own announcement states the money comes from funding already earmarked for high street support and regeneration. The department has not published a reconciliation showing which earlier budget lines supply each part of the package.

Developers in parts of Norfolk could pay a flat £2,675 levy per home instead of arranging nutrient pollution mitigation for each project, under the first Environmental Delivery Plan proposed through the government's Nature Restoration Fund. Natural England says it could provide capacity for up to 15,780 homes. The consultation closes 27 October. Environmental groups have questioned whether the proposed charge is high enough.

The government is giving 14 financially troubled councils £91 million to redesign expensive services in an attempt to reduce their reliance on Exceptional Financial Support. Those same 14 authorities have already been approved for about £460.4 million of Exceptional Financial Support in 2026/27. Across England, 35 councils have been approved for £1.5 billion this year.

Andy Burnham has committed his government to ending long term rough sleeping across the UK "at the earliest opportunity", backed by an initial £340 million programme. The announcement does not say when that should happen. It sits on top of an existing government target to halve long term rough sleeping in England by the end of this Parliament, measured from a published baseline of 3,427 people.

GMB's published regional data record 992,536 council tax court actions in England in 2024/25, although the union's figures contain an unresolved discrepancy that prevents a clean national total. Ministers have already decided the current enforcement system needs replacing. The new rules will not begin until April 2027.

Dorset has the highest average Band D council tax in England this year at £2,765.02. But five of the ten highest areas are district council areas where most of the bill is not set by the district council at all. It goes to county councils, police, fire services and parish or town councils. In two of them, the district council did not increase its own charge at all this year.

The average Band D council tax bill in England was £1,439 in 2010/11. For 2026/27 it is £2,392, an increase of £953, or 66 per cent in cash terms. The difference between areas is even larger: Dorset charges £2,765 and Wandsworth £1,028. But that £1,737 gap cannot sensibly be read as £1,737 worth of difference in council performance.

There is no official league table of England's worst councils, and pretending there is would create more certainty than the evidence allows. This ranking looks at the severity of documented failures since 2018: Section 114 notices, Best Value findings, unsustainable debt, government intervention, failures of financial control and the length of the recovery required.